ROSE LIVES COSPLAY DREAM
ROSE Hartvigsen was just a nerdy Toowoomba teenager when she decided to craft a career in video games and cosplaying in the United States.
It was an idea that seemed insane at the time, even to her.
“If you asked when I was a kid, if I’d be travelling around the United States playing video games for a living, I wouldn’t believe you,” she said.
The 28-year-old Darling Downs Christian School alumni is part of the burgeoning video game industry in USA, travelling to different conventions as a brand ambassador to promote top titles.
On top of her day job, Ms Hartvigsen also cosplays as video game characters in outfits she makes.
Going by the name Lilletsy online, she also streams videos of herself playing some of the newest video game titles, mostly on the platform Twitch.
“It’s getting bigger, especially with e-sports getting a lot bigger,” Ms Hartvigsen said.
After graduating in 2007, Ms Hartvigsen decided to head to Provo, Utah three years later to work in the video game industry.
She got her lucky break two years ago when Cyber Solutions Agency signed her as a brand ambassador.
It wasn’t long before Ms Hartvigsen started creating her own costumes, which she said were based on video game characters.
“I only started modelling this last year, but in video games I’ve been doing that for two years,” she said.
“Mostly right now I’m doing League of Legends because it’s relevant, but sometimes I’ll do callbacks for older video games.”
Ms Hartvigsen credited Toowoomba for putting her on her current career path.
“Here in Toowoomba, people have self-interests so if you play video games, no one is going to make fun of you,” she said.
“If I had grown up anywhere else, I don’t know if I’d be doing what I do today.”